[projectramo]

It is true that people with poor GPAs (to a certain extent) often do very well. They might achieve extreme results more often than people with better GPAs.

To what extent? The number is 2.9 http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-barker-millionaires-bad-...

However, this just shows that they are outliers. It may turn out to be the case that there are just as many negative outliers for that GPA (or not, I don't know).

If you are asking if it is true that this is an old saying, I have heard the sentiment before many times. I can't remember the name of the book where someone said the people who got the to the moon were lead by a C-student but all of them had perfect GPAs. However, I don't know of that particular phrasing.

[zone411]

This 2.9 number comes from "Millionaire Mind," published in 2000 with the data from 1990s. The same book states that 2% of millionaires were in the top 1% of the college classes and 90% graduated from college. Note the huge amount of grade inflation since the surveyed millionaires graduated (their average age was 54, so they would be in college on average in the 1960s) and a large increase in the percentage of students attending colleges. And a myriad of possible selection biases. It doesn't seem like a good argument that people with poor GPAs do better than people with high GPAs.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2010/ted_20100428.png

https://books.google.com/books?id=p60tDntHVnUC&pg=PA99&lpg=P...

[divenorth]

Exactly. How much money did those people start out with? If you're from a wealthy family and will work for the family business it doesn't matter what your GPA is.

[0xbear]

Don’t know if this is true, but it rings true all the same. A students get bogged down with “getting an A” at what they do. That requires a lot of time and work. C students socialize and make connections. They fail a lot more often than they succeed, but there’s survivor bias.

[sjg007]

A students also go to med school.